12/11/10

The Smartphone Bicycle

Safety protocols say to keep both hands on the handlebars but they also say use hand gestures to signal turn intention. Contradiction! The Ecodrive has integrated lights and turn signals controlled via the handlebars. And no concept is complete without some form of smartphone integration so this little guy has a nice cubby hole for the iPhone. Keeps it charged and in return, the iPhone gives you access to its magical GPS and navigation abilities. It’s animal symbiosis people.


Designer:
Juil Kim

Yanko Design

A Clean Shirt Everyday

I actually enjoy doing laundry because the results always leave me in some warm, cuddly, lethargic relaxed state. Maybe it’s the combination of heat and dryer sheets; does it to me every time. But, if you told me I could leave it all behind and have clean clothes each time I opened my closet, I’d hand you my credit card.

This Washing Machine for the closet takes all the cakes kids. Designed for men (men are dirtier than women people), it uses a combination of humidity, ionization, ozone (O3) and air pressure to destroy bacteria and remove stains. All you do is hang up your shirts, turn it on and within minutes, the waterless system provides you with shirt worthy of a dry cleaner’s award. It may seem large and cumbersome but if you’re getting a clean shirt every day, doesn’t that mean you only need one, maybe two shirts instead of ten? Plus it’s free of chemicals meaning Earth is happy and your clothes last much longer.

Designer: Minsung Bae

Yanko Design

The Fascinating Legacy of the 2010 TUDOR Heritage Chrono Watch

If it’s not the celestial bodies, man has depended on earthly resources (sand-clock) to keep an account of the precious moments that tick away. With age and technology, refinements to the system gave us pocket watches, grandfather clocks and even the humble wristwatch. Subtle significance in fictions like Paths of Glory, where a watch played the crucial evidence that rocked Edmund Hillary’s claim to Everest, or real-time standstills found at ground zero, a watch is a Precious Heritage that we all identify with. The 2010 TUDOR Heritage Chrono Watch is one significant addition that you’d like to inherit.

Heritage essentially is the rich legacy that passes down to generations and Tudor Heritage is one legacy that is created at the crossroads of vintage and velocity. The 2010 TUDOR Heritage Chrono models itself on the 1970s model, retaining the original shape and proportions of the middle case, bezel, lugs and bracelet. To suit every taste, Heritage Chrono comes in either grey on black or black on grey. The style gets significant with the stunning orange details and 3-D appliqué rather than printed pentagonal-shaped hour markers and two counters.

Here is what makes TUDOR Heritage Chrono a charming addition to your precious time-keeping collection:

  • The beveled and polished edges of the lugs look breathtakingly elegant.
  • Slick, stylized shoulders protect the crown, and the knurled edge of the rotatable bezel and of the pushers that flank a knurled winding crown to improve grip.
  • The 45-minute counter reiterates the counter of the 1970s, dictated by the very structure of its 7734 Valjoux movement and the need for optimal legibility.
  • A thicker, wider, sleeker watch case of the TUDOR Heritage Chrono, once 40 mm and now 42 mm, is altogether in keeping with the dimensions of today’s chronographs.
  • It boasts the reference to the 7033 bidirectional rotatable bezel, originally designed for the 1970s first edition of the watch but was never distributed.
  • Today it bears the reference number 70330, with a black eloxed aluminum disc, and comes with both a three-link solid steel bracelet with a new clasp and TUDOR shield logo, as well as, a black, grey and orange fabric strap, with a newly developed vintage- and seat belt inspired buckle.
  • The rich heritage accumulated for the last forty years finally culminates to the 2010 TUDOR Heritage Chrono, a fitting addition to the TUDOR Sport collection, which is ingeniously inspired by the celebrated TUDOR Oysterdate Chronograph of the early 1970s.
  • It is a fitting ode to the historic links and shared values of the TUDOR and Porsche brands and to the powerful TUDOR-Porsche Motorsport partnership signed in 2009, when TUDOR became “Timing Partner” for Porsche.

Design: TUDOR

Yankodesign

Lots of unrelated links

“The Beast” by M55 Bikes is an aggressive looking pedelec with a claimed 40 mph max speed. I think this is one of those electric bikes that begs the question, how fast is too fast? Isn’t this really just a motorcycle with pedals?

Also recently posted at Yanko Design, re:energy is a front wheel concept that promises to harness kinetic energy from riding. The idea behind the design by Jinsik Kim and Boseung Seo is that a user can recharge his or her laptop, phone, or other gadget with the energy stored in the wheel. Maybe in a world with no crosswinds, but in real life it is not very practical. I certainly wouldn’t want to get passed by a bus while riding a bike with a disc wheel in the front. Ouch!

Yet another bike seen at Yanko Design is Omer Sagiv’s folding city bike made from recyclable molded plastic. The full suspension, singlespeed ‘ReCycle Me’ was one of the shortlisted entries in the Seoul Cycle Design Competition. You might remember that I posted a few other concept designs by Omer Sagiv a few months ago.

Speaking of molded plastic bikes, check out the Bisickle, a “whimsical” commuter bike concept by illustrator/inventor/cartoonist Steven Johnson.

I’m really liking the illustrations by Chris McNally on the new Ibis website.

PUBLIC bike has couple of new models that will debut this month. Tell them in ~200 words or less where you would take them and what you would do on a 90 minute bicycle trip in your hometown, and you might win one of the new bikes.

Every other blog in the world has mentioned this, so I might as well quit holding out and jump on the bandwagon. I am skeptical about the idea, but I have to admit that I did find it initially interesting (maybe it was just the models and photography that drew me in). I can’t wait to see how this product is received when Hövding actually starts selling it in Sweden, possibly as early as next Spring.

Pedalr is a site where you can buy or sell bicycles, parts, accessories, apparel or anything bike related. Unlike Craigslist and eBay, pedalr gives “artisans, boutique manufacturers and small shops of the biking world a platform to create identity and connect with bicycle passionate folks.” Read more about it here and click around a bit. It is a pretty cool site to explore.

Alastair Warren wasn’t happy with existing mini-pumps on the market, so he designed one that he believes will offer a better user experience.

I liked the Eurobike Student award winning design for a tent that used a bicycle as part of the structure. Apparently, Topeak has a similar tent on the market.

Apple’s “smart bicycle” patent was making the blog rounds not long ago (including on this blog). Yannig Roth shared some interesting thoughts on the subject, with a mention of the Smart e-bike, recently on his blog.

Alchemy Goods is a Seattle based company that makes bags and other products from old bicycle tubes, seatbelts, advertising banners, etc. They just released a few new products including the Pine messenger bag (for smaller loads), which you can see pictured here.

Bike198 is introducing a new t-shirt line starting with this “Size Does Matter” 29er shirt. Robb Sutton of Bike198 says, “The design of this tee by Adam Allen gets to the retro roots that started with custom steel 29ers but still speaks to the aluminum full suspension designs that we see in today’s market.” They are offering the shirt at a discounting rate until 11/13, so check out the pre-order page.

Richard from Cyclelicious attended the 2010 San Francisco Bicycle Expo last week. Check out some of his photos, including those from the Pedal Savvy bicycle fashion show that took place during the expo.

Salvatore Avantaggiato from Valgioie, Italy is the designer behind the oONDA. Check out the website(in Italian) to see a video of this unconventional folding bike

On a trip to Italy to visit his wife’s family, Brian Miller visited theGemmati Velocipedi factory, which has been producing Iride bikes since 1919. Over the years, he visited many times and finally decided to start importing the classic steel lugged Iride bikes to the U.S. The deep-drop pantographed stem on the track bike, caught my attention. I still have a few old pantographed 1980’s Italian parts that I no longer use, but I just can’t bear to part with.

Posted in E-bike, Uncategorized (Bicycle Design)

Ngày kỷ niệm của những chiếc xe 2 bánh.

Có lẽ có khá nhiều người biết ngày 21 tháng 7 là ngày của những người điều khiển motor. Vậy còn ngày của những chiếc motor là ngày nào?


Ngày kỷ niệm của những chiếc xe 2 bánh.


Việt HùngThứ sáu, 12/11/2010, 8:18(GMT+7)

Có lẽ có khá nhiều người biết ngày 21 tháng 7 là ngày của những người điều khiển motor. Vậy còn ngày của những chiếc motor là ngày nào?

Có thể không có một ngày kỷ niệm chính xác cho những chiếc motor nhưng ngày hôm nay, chính xác là 125 năm về trước, vào ngày 11 tháng 11 năm 1885, mốc thời gian có một sự kiện khá đặc biệt với lịch sử motor thế giới. Ngày mà nhà thiết kế, kỹ sư thiên tài người Đức, ông chủ đầu tiên của tập đoàn Daimler Chrysler, người được coi là cha đẻ của những chiếc xe hơi Mercedes và ngành công nghiệp xe hơi châu Âu, Gottlieb Daimler trình làng chiếc xe máy chạy xăng đầu tiên trên thế giới.

Ông được cấp bằng sáng chế mang tên “Reitwagen”, ông đã xây dựng một mô hình chiếc xe hai bánh và chế tạo thử nghiệm chiếc xe đó với một động cơ nhỏ (động cơ này được phát triển cùng với động cơ của những chiếc Maybach hạng sang) nằm trong một khung xe bằng gỗ cùng những chiếc bánh xe cũng được chế tạo bằng gỗ. Gottlieb Daimler đã test chiếc xe này bằng cách lái nó đi ba dặm dọc theo bờ sông Neckar của Đức và nó đạt được vận tốc tao nhất 12 km/h.



Mặc dù chỉ đạt tốc độ hơn 10 km/giờ một chút nhưng điều đặc biệt là chiếc xe gỗ 2 bánh đã "tự đi" mà không cần ngựa kéo hay bất kỳ một lực tác động nào.

Gottlieb Daimler có một câu nói rất hay về những chiếc xe 2 bánh: “Ngày của những chiếc motor có thể là từng ngày khi bạn ngồi lên chiếc xe của bạn, điều khiển chúng và tận hưởng những cảm giác bay bổng, thoải mái và tự do”.


































Theo Autopro